Sean Burkholder is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design and co-founder of the Environmental Modeling Lab (EMLab). He is also co-founder of the research and design practice Proof Projects, and co-director of the Healthy Port Futures project. His practice and research look broadly across issues faced by coastal landscapes while focusing particularly on lake-based geographies. As a member of the Dredge Research Collaborative, he believes that coastal sediments and processes serve as a common thread through many coastal circumstances, whether understood as positive or negative. More specifically, he works through methodologies such as adaptive management, environmental monitoring, speculation, and storytelling to inform positive futures while leveraging the potentials of temporality, curiosity, and experimentation as fundamental endeavors of landscape practice. His first book, Five Bay Landscapes: Curious Explorations of the Great Lakes Region, co-authored with Karen Lutsky, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2022. He is currently working on his second book Lakemaker: Surveys, Stories, and Speculations of Held Water, which will be published by AR+D.
Sean coordinates the first-semester design studio (5010) and offers seminars and studios on topics including environmental modeling and monitoring, experimentation, counterfactual speculation, and coastal infrastructure.
